Response to Emperor M

by Ben

Its amazing how one person can be very wrong in a perspective, and I usually don't touch on the rebuttle subject, but here is my opinion on the subject.

"You then had FMV (CG FMV specifically), which for some, took away the innocent charm of the game."

Innocent charm? I don't think RPGS need an innocent charm to be good. They can be completely dark and still have a wide fanbase (FFT proved that, just look at the ending) Final Fantasy 6, which had no CG/FMV, touched on issues such as suicide, but of course, that's just part of the "innocent charm" of the game.

"Then, finally, you had what was at the heart of the game, its plot. Instead of focusing on each characters biography, instead of having a lunatic villain who was bad because it gave him kicks, and instead of having a plot with characters and storyline so far fetched it went beyond Jona and the Whale, you had a plot that for some, was boring. You had characters who did things for a reason, who felt things. You had Sephiroth, who wasn't a MagiTek experiment gone wrong, or a mad wizard name Exdeath, he did it because he was convinced that it was what he had to do. Filled with real, actual hate, he slaughtered a village without remorse, not much unlike the recent shooting at the Jewish Community Center. You had Cloud, and instead of seeing his past under a microscope, you saw into his mind, where something actually existed. It was something no game of this type had ever done before. Why did Square betray its loyal fans? I would speculate that these things, which could be called elements of the "Mature" RPG, would become what made Square stand out above the rest, and be successful."

I think that Final Fantasy 7 introduced a whole new psychological element into the RPG. You could really get a more deep emotional attachment to the characters. Before Sephiroth, I had never been more attached to a villian. Doing things with no reason sounds too nonsensical, and I'm glad Square gave us more psychological insight, for it made the story better. As for "betraying its fans", Square just evolved and tried something new, and it obviously worked.

He then goes on to contradict himself, saying:

"Square's latest games show me hope. Stories of things that could really happen (And yet are fictional and fantasy based), people with problems real people have (Cloud's fear of failure for example), and stories that you can actually learn things from, that teach and instill good values, instead of hate."

Didn't he say that the Fantasy aspect of the FF series is what attracted him to the RPG in the first place?

I think that this was a very confusing perspective, but this is just my take on someone else's opinion. To agree or not, is your choice.

And as far as FF8, never so early on in an RPG have I became so attached to a character, especially Rinoa and Zell.

Original Editorial: Square's Trends (FF and other games) and the Effects on Society